Day of the Dead lives in Bremerton
Published 1:00 pm Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Even as its founding venue and second home are now each deceased, the Day of the Dead show lives on in Bremerton.
The growing tradition which was an idea hatched in 2000 by former West Side Burrito Connection owner and proprietor Dan Hill and emboldened by the efforts of renowned Kitsap pin-up artist Krysztof Nemeth and later local assemblage artist Patrick Cooper and the former Metropolis: the Gallery.
Metropolis shut down in 2005 after hosting the show for two years, while the Burrito Connection closed down earlier this year. Both places will live on in tribute as “Dia De Los Muertos 7: Bremerton Lives” fills the walls of the Artists for Freedom and Unity Hall starting this weekend.
“It’s honoring the dead by celebrating life,” said AFU art chair Gabriel Lee of the somewhat contradictory traditional Aztec and Meso-American holiday.
Thought it may seem absolutely morbid at first sight, with all the skull subject matter, post-mortem portraits, zombies and the like, it’s actually a rather joyous occasion, a bash for the buried as it were.
It’s usually one of the biggest Bremer-shows/parties of the year, Lee added.
The show kicks off with a reception romp including live music, food and a beer and wine garden starting at 5 p.m. Oct. 5.
The official Christianized Day of the Dead celebration dates aren’t until Nov. 1 (All Saints Day) or Nov. 2 (All Souls Day), however, the Dia de los Muertos show will be on display through November at the AFU.
While folks around the world will celebrate by donning whimsical wooden skull masks called calacas and dancing around in honor of the deceased, the artists of Dia de los Muertos 7 will be offering their tributes through art.
There is a group of regulars who have invested in the show nearly since the beginning, Lee, Cooper, Nemeth and Rose Smith included, but each year there are new minds and works coming into the mix.
This year one of the most random but also most relevant pieces of the show comes from one of those newbies — Melissa Arana.
She salvaged a piece of the West Side Burrito Connection’s former business sign, immortalizing the genesis of Bremerton’s Dia de los Muertos art show.
“Melissa just came walking in the door with it one day,” Lee said of the portion of the purple sign which now hangs at the AFU.
Arana said she was downtown at the time it was being torn down, picked up the most legible piece she could find and carried it down Burwell St. to the AFU Gallery on Callow.
A self-professed “starving artist” who just recently found her way from pencil sketches to paint and canvas, Arana will be entering a few stunningly colored skeleton-centric paintings into the show as well.
“I think that’s why it has lived on so long is because it’s such a cool theme,” Lee said, noting that the theme isn’t relegated strictly to the underworld or all that is morbid.
He is working on portrait of famed author/misogynist Charles Bukowski for the show.
“And it’s a cultural event as well,” Lee added.
There are likely quite a few folks who have been introduced to the celebration of the dead through events like this one.
Once those who may not know much about the Day of the Dead get involved they’ll likely be more inclined to study the history and meaning of the holiday, Dia de los Muertos organizers surmise.
In that search, one might find the genesis of the Day of the Dead celebration is the idea that death is not the end — rather it’s a beginning of sorts.
“Dia de los Muertos 7: Bremerton Lives” will hang Oct. 5 through the beginning of November with a reception party slated for 5 p.m. Oct. 5 at the AFU hall — 318 N. Callow Ave. in Bremerton. All ages, no cover.
